Wesley Corpus

And according to Scripture, his unchangeableness of affection properly and primarily regards tempers and not persons; and persons (as Enoch, Noah, Abraham) only as those tempers are found in them. Let then the unchangeableness of God be put upon the right foot; let the Scripture be allowed to fix the objects of it, and it will as soon prove transubstantiation, as unconditional election. 59. The faithfulness of God may be termed a branch of his truth. He will perform what he hath promised. But then let us inquire of the oracles of God, To whom are the promises made? the promises of life and immortality? The answer is, “To Abraham and his seed;” that is, to those who “walk in the steps of that faith of their father Abraham.” To those who believe, as believers, are the gospel promises made. To these hath the faithful God engaged, that he will do what he hath spoken. “He will fulfil his covenant and promise which he hath made to a thousand generations:” The sum of which is, (as we find it expressly declared by the Spirit of God,) “The Lord will give grace” (more grace) “and glory; and no good thing will he withhold from them that live a godly life.” 60. This covenant of God I understand; but I have heard of another which I understand not. I have heard, “that God the Father made a covenant with his Son, before the world began, wherein the Son agreed to suffer such and such things, and the Father to give him such and such souls for a recompence; that in consequence of this, those souls must be saved, and those only, so that all others must be damned.” I beseech you, where is this written ? In what part of Scrip ture is this covenant to be found? We may well expect a thing of this moment to be revealed very expressly, with the utmost clearness and solemnity. But where is this done? And if it is not done, if there is no such account in all the Bible; which shall we wonder at most, that any serious man should advance, or that thousands should believe, so strange an assertion, without one plain text of Scripture to support it, from Genesis to the Revelation? 61.